35 Facts About Moses Montefiore

Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, was a British financier and banker, activist, philanthropist and Sheriff of London.

Moses Montefiore founded Mishkenot Sha'ananim in 1860, the first Jewish settlement outside the Old City of Jerusalem.

Moses Montefiore stated in an interview in the 1860s that "Palestine must belong to the Jews".

Moses Montefiore was born in Leghorn, Tuscany, in 1784, to a Sephardic Jewish family based in Great Britain.

In 1812, Moses Montefiore became a freemason, joining the Moira Lodge, No 92 of the Premier Grand Lodge of England in London.

From 1809 to 1814, Moses Montefiore served in the Surrey Local Militia, rising to the rank of captain in the 3rd Surrey Local Militia's 7th Company.

Moses Montefiore was greatly disappointed when his company voted to disband on 22 February 1814.

Moses Montefiore largely closed down his trading activities in 1820.

In 1812, Moses Montefiore married Judith Cohen, daughter of Levy Barent Cohen.

In business, Moses Montefiore was an innovator, investing in the supply of piped gas for street lighting to European cities via the Imperial Continental Gas Association.

Moses Montefiore traveled with a personal shohet, to ensure that he would have a ready supply of kosher meat.

Moses Montefiore resolved to increase his religious observance and to attend synagogue on Shabbat, as well as Mondays and Thursdays when the Torah is read.

In 1831, Moses Montefiore purchased a country estate with twenty-four acres on the East Cliff of the fashionable seaside town of Ramsgate.

Moses Montefiore is mentioned in Charles Dickens' diaries, in the personal papers of George Eliot, and in James Joyce's novel Ulysses.

Moses Montefiore was active in public initiatives aimed at alleviating the persecution of minorities in the Middle East and elsewhere, and he worked closely with organisations that campaigned for the abolition of slavery.

In 1836 Moses Montefiore became a governor of Christ's Hospital, the Bluecoat school, after assisting in the case of a distressed man who had appealed to him to help his soon-to-be-widowed wife and son.

Moses Montefiore was elected Sheriff of the City of London in 1837.

Moses Montefiore was president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 1835 to 1874, a period of 39 years, the longest tenure ever, and member of Bevis Marks Synagogue.

Moses Montefiore was concerned with alleviating the distress of Jews abroad.

Moses Montefiore received a baronetcy in 1846 in recognition of his services to humanitarian causes on behalf of the Jewish people.

Moses Montefiore was appointed executor of his will, and used the funds for a variety of projects to encourage the Jews to engage in productive labor.

Moses Montefiore offered financial inducement to encourage poor families to move there.

Moses Montefiore intended Mishkenot Sha'ananim to be a new type of self-sufficient, sanitary settlement where Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews lived together.

Later on, Moses Montefiore established adjacent neighborhoods south of Jaffa Road, the Ohel Moshe neighborhood for Sephardic Jews and the Mazkeret Moshe neighborhood for Ashkenazi Jews, who had distinctly different traditions and languages.

Moses Montefiore donated large sums of money to promote industry, education, and health amongst the Jewish community in Palestine.

Moses Montefiore built the Moses Montefiore Windmill in an area that later developed as the Yemin Moshe neighbourhood, to provide cheap flour to poor Jews.

Moses Montefiore established a printing press and textile factory, and helped to finance several Bilu agricultural colonies.

Moses Montefiore commissioned several censuses of the Yishuv, or Jewish community in Palestine: these were conducted in 1839,1849,1855,1866 and 1875, and provided much data about the people.

Moses Montefiore played an important role in Ramsgate affairs, and one of the local ridings still bears his name.

Moses Montefiore died in 1885, at age 100 years and 9 months.

Sir Moses Montefiore was buried in the mausoleum which he had had built near the Montefiore Synagogue at Ramsgate.

Chicago's West Side is home to a reform school of higher education, Moses Montefiore Academy, named in honour of him.

The Moses Montefiore Club was a private social and business association, catering to the Jewish community located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

In 1961 the Moses Montefiore Endowment deposited the papers of Moses Montefiore Family at the Mocatta Library of University College London.

Also included are many testimonials and centenary tributes to Moses Montefiore thanking him for his generosity; these have been digitised.